Every one of estimated 100 million households and businesses monthly receives multiple separate bills, such as those for local telephone service, long distance telephone service, electricity, water, gas, city services, retail store accounts, and credit card accounts. There are other periodic notices and payments such as insurance, checking accounts, savings accounts, car loans, house mortgage payments, subscriptions, cable T.V., local taxes, brokerage house statements, and mutual fund statements. Under most circumstances, bills are sent periodically by first class mail to each household. Each household then writes and mails a check to each firm along with a payment stub. Labor is required for the payee to manually enter the amount of each check and to to credit the payment to the proper account. Although electronic banking for consumers has been available for a long time, it is rarely used for various reasons, as evidenced by increased number of checks being written. Because of the fact that most of these mailings weigh less than ounce each and because of the postal rate structure (twenty nine cents for the first ounce and twenty three cents for each additional ounce, and lower rates for various presorted mails), an efficient scheme utilizing a specially gummed label is feasible to reduce the cost to all parties by combined mailing of bills and payment checks.
Essential to said scheme is the proposed two-section gummed label attached to each bill, pre-printed with essential readable and scannable data, and to be transferred onto a check, thus reducing the effort and error in preparing checks by consumers. An operating firm periodically collects billing data from billing firms; sorts the data, addresses, and addresses with computers; prints; and mails all bills and notices in one envelope to each household or business. Each addressee mails all checks, in one envelope, with full or partial payments for each account by posting one said gummed labels on each respective check, to said operating firm who sorts and records payments, and delivers all checks to appropriate banks to credit respective billing firms. The purposes and effects of the proposals: (1) reduction of billing and paying postage, (2) reduction of envelope usage, (3) elimination of payment stubs, (4) savings in labor and improved accuracy of check preparation, and (5) savings in labor in check processing by payees, and (6) improved speed and accuracy of check processing by payees.